Montessori: Living the Good Life

This Blog is primarily about my book: Montessori--Living the Good Life,which is concerned about family life and Maria Montessori's way of educating our children toward a life of happiness and fulfilling relationships which will lead to a peaceful existence in the family, schools, and world and universal community. I hope to share my personal thoughts and feelings about other's ideas which contribute to the goals of my book: Montessori---Living the Good Life and to respond to readers' comments.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

My belief that a child is born an Angel is a cornerstone of
my reality. A newborn, an Angel, welcomed and appreciated in an environment of
love and goodness, will become a loving human being. Like a sponge they will
absorb their surroundings and create their
cornerstone for a life of happiness or not.

Sometimes
Angels lose their wings. Stories are ways to let wingless Angels know the truth
. . . stories of truths that are too difficult to perceive or reflect on by
one’s self.

My
first Angel story is about a young girl who worshiped her Father. He was her
fairy-tale prince and she was his princess. She imagined him like a God. There
was nothing he could not do. His gifts were plentiful. Joy surrounded her . . .
until . . . one day her happiness disappeared. She was eight years old.

Evie
no longer danced and sang her fairy tale songs; no longer dreamed of being a
beauty queen or a movie star, or marrying her daddy; no longer was she daddy’s
girl. Evie’s heart and soul cracked like the neck of a baby bird fallen from
its nest.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

I've had some technical problems getting started with blogging. Finally called my son for help. He's a whiz with computers. Expressing what is on my mind concerning my passion for Montessori education, has taken longer . . . like two years.
Everyone, who has read my book, Montessori, Living the Good Life, knows of the blessings of Montessori experiences for family life. Montessori life in the home gives a family the greatest opportunity for happiness, peace, joy and love.
But what happens when a family has problems . . . financial troubles that become a greater burden than their family life, their joy of life can handle? What happens when happiness is lost to despair and darkness? What happens when evil enters in?Evie's Secret, an historical novel, written during the depression of the thirties, answers these questions. Evie has a secret that reveals the joy and darkness of life.

Evie's Secret is not yet completed. My intention is to share chapters in my blog. Comments are encouraged.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

I’m packing boxes of treasures and routine comforts. Our
beds and books are gone. Soon we’ll be stuffing our bathroom and kitchen
belongings in more containers. The sound of the ripping tape is getting on my
nerves. How long will it be before we connect with our attachments again? Maybe
two weeks? Exciting? An adventure? At this stage, it feels like an approaching
tornado.

Maria Montessori tells a story of a young mother concerned
for her crying child who, for apparently no reason, could not be consoled. She
explains how young children have a sensitive time when they need their
environment to have consistency. The child cried because the mother had
disturbed the order of his surroundings by putting her coat in a different
place than usual. This sensitive period for order usually happens around the
age of two.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

I’m moving.This weekend we had a moving sale, or garage sale
as is often called. The difference is that with a moving sale more pieces of
history are released into the hands of others looking for treasures.

For several weeks I have been cleaning out closets, dark
deep holes of space behind more spaces of unused, of once long ago meaningful
belongings, taking hours and hours of sorting and discerning—what to keep and
what to let ago, reminiscing over each picture, each prize and its day of
glory. Emotionally, it was exhausting. I’m thankful for the experiences of
joyfulness, yet very happy the days are done with. I’m happy to move on and
especially thankful for the friends and family who were there for me.

The experience was transforming. Letting go of my gems meant
a letting go of a pastime, a piece of life given away, maybe to be forgotten
forever; a time for tears and a bit of sadness. Nevertheless, as the days passed
I grew accustomed to the process and began to think about how another will
appreciate the goods for less than retail prices. I began to look forward to
the sale and feel joy in the giving. A change was happening. I became excited
waiting for the days of the sale.

When I experience myself going through changes like this, I
can’t help but to relate the time to the development of the young child.
Thinking about the young child is a continuing pastime and passion for me.

The conceived infant is on a pathway of constant change,
continually letting go of his history, of his flesh as he changes and develops
daily, minute by minute into a new being reaching out toward the goal of
someday being an adult. How desperately the growing child, the young teenager,
must need a friend who is there for them.

Monday, May 27, 2013

I remember the exciting time when my first child was born
and the nurse brought him to my bedside. He was beautiful—no matter that his
head was cone shaped and his eyes crossed. He was the most beautiful sight in
the whole world to me that first morning.

Why is it that all babies are beautiful? No matter bald or
cone-shaped heads, or different colors or features. To a mother and to a
father, the child is beautiful. You hear the phrase, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but I think there is more
to it than that.

The child is the incarnation of its parents. That is, the
child gives bodily form to his parents. The child is the flesh of the parent’s
love for each other. Each one giving their love to the other bares flesh,
another human being. This is truly a miracle.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

My oldest grandson graduates this week. He played the Postlude
on the piano for his classes’ Baccalaureate service the night before last. You
could hear a pin drop before he was finished—the music was that moving. He has
been fortunate to have a loving environment with collaborative parents who
understood his moods and allowed him his moments of joy and peace.

Maren Schmidt’s kids’ newsletter, www.kidstalknews.com has a special conversation
on Experiencing the Moment with an
enlightening understanding of the child’s realization of joy and goodness.

Music is a blessed media to escape the troubled world and
find peace in the truth of beautiful sounds. I’m pleased to know my grandson
will have his gift of music to share and will continue to create a life of his own,
and I'm proud of his courage and dedication to his talent and willingness to
listen to his own spirit.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Through culture and traditions, the adult works to prepare
different environments for the child working to become the adult. One of the
environments the adult prepares for the young child is through the initiation
of baptism where the child learns to be one with the Holy Spirit. Through the
enlightened Word, the adult works to share their bread, their grace, with their
child.

The child, of course, comes to share his life that is
already grace-filled, already God-given; so we sing, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. I wonder
sometimes, who is the lamb—the child or the adult?

Peace can happen, and will happen, if the adult can see, can be aware, can collaborate,
with the grace of the child, and work toward an environment of love.

Maria Montessori's life work was for peace in our world. She
understood the potential peace, joy, and hope the newborn, the young child
brings. Through collaboration with the child she discovered ways to turn on the
lights for parents and educators. Living the life of the Holy Spirit helps a
great deal

About Me

I live in Anchorage, Alaska; married to Ted Lujan; retired as Director of Religious Education at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in 2000; graduate of Gonzaga and Seattle University and certified Montessori teacher from Spring Valley Montessori school in Washington state.